TV, eh? | What's up in Canadian television | Page 1143
TV,eh? What's up in Canadian television

TV, eh? podcast episode 184 – Full of Newsy Goodness

The team is at full strength and covering a lot of breaking news in the Canadian industry, including the cancellation and return of Degrassi, Martin Sheen joining the Anne of Green Gables TV-movie, Corus’ reboot of ReBoot and Season 1 and 2 of Blackstone heading to CBC for the summer.

Also discussed: Saving Hope gets a plum spot on CTV’s fall schedule, X Company and Strange Empire are available to binge-watch on Netflix Canada and Diane and Greg recap Rogers, Shaw and Bell Media’s fall schedules.

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CBC teams with marblemedia for Take Sides

From a media release:

CBC and The Gurin Company are pleased to announce a development deal with award-winning Canadian content creator marblemedia for the ground-breaking factualentertainment format series Take Sides.

The concept is the first series to come out of the creative collaboration deal signed between the CBC and The Gurin Company, a global independent format and production house. marblemedia is attached to develop and produce a 360 viewing experience, which promises an entertaining weekly live studio broadcast with integratedsocial media and simultaneous digital participation for the audience at home.

Every week, Take Sides will put a hot button topic “on trial,” with a team of comedic performers, improv actors and musical guests, who face-off in a classic courtroom structure. The topic on trial will be examined through a variety of methods including monologues, sketches, musical numbers, video shorts and other means that illustrate the “pros and cons” of the issue. Through real time audience involvement, a verdict is reached by Canadian audiences, who ultimately “take a side.”

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Link: Orphan Black’s Crazy Bioweapon Actually Exists In Nature

From Lauren Davis of io9:

Orphan Black’s Crazy Bioweapon Actually Exists In Nature
This season, Orphan Black introduced a line of genetically male clones to its tale, and with them came a scary new twist in the Orphan Black biology. How scientifically realistic is this weird new development? Well, something like it does happen in the real world — but only with fruit flies, not humans. Continue reading.

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Corus reboots Reboot with The Guardian Code

From a media release:

Corus Entertainment has given the greenlight to Mainframe Entertainment—the television division of the multifaceted Vancouver-based animation studio Rainmaker Entertainment (TSX VENTURE:RNK)—to produce 26 half-hour episodes of a reimagined version of the classic and first-of-its-kind CG-animated television series ReBoot.  Reboot: The Guardian Code, a hybrid live-action/CG-animated series to be distributed globally by TWC/Dimension Television (excluding Canada) commences production on the heels of the series’ 20th anniversary featuring cutting-edge technology that will reboot the ReBoot universe to create a groundbreaking multi-platform experience. The announcement was made today at Banff World Media Festival by Jamie Piekarz, Director of Content, Corus Kids, and Michael Hefferon, President and Chief Creative Officer, Rainmaker Entertainment. The series originally premiered on Corus’ kids channel YTV in 1994 and aired until 2001.

Created by Michael Hefferon, Reboot: The Guardian Code is based on the original ReBoot created by Gavin Blair, John Grace, Phil Mitchell and Ian Pearson. The YTV series was the first of its kind–a fully CG animated television series. Ahead of its time, the original series electrified viewers with its groundbreaking animation style and stories of heroic Guardians who battled viruses inside computer systems. Twenty years later, ReBoot: the Guardian Code upgrades that original concept for today’s tech savvy kids.

Transcending age groups with appeal to kids, tweens and teens, ReBoot: the Guardian Code is an adventure-comedy series about four teens (Austin, Parker, Grey and Tamra) who discover that they’re next-gen Guardians with a mission to save the world, by defending it in cyberspace. The Internet revolutionized the world, but it also left it vulnerable to attack. With the help of VERA, the last surviving cyberbeing from the original Guardian Program, our heroes stream into cyberspace where they use their awesome code-based powers to battle viruses that have been unleashed by a ruthless hacker. Known only as the Sourcerer, he seeks to rule the world by controlling cyberspace. Original fans of the show will be happy to hear that Megabyte will be back and he’s getting a major upgrade. ReBoot will showcase leading edge technologies and bring coding into the mainstream for kids.

When Austin, Parker, Grey and Tamra are not trying to stop viruses from overloading a nuclear power station, or remotely opening a dam to flood a city, or playing Criss Cross Crash Hour with a city’s transportation grid, our heroes are being typical teens: arguing with their parents over curfews; dealing with crushes; or trying to avoid getting suspended for skipping class when they’re really on a cyber mission to save the world!

Over the course of its four seasons in the 1990s, 48 x 22 minute episodes of ReBoot were sold to 84 counties (YTV in Canada and ABC Network and Cartoon Network in the US), with the last new episodes airing in 2001. Complementing the television series was a ReBoot toy line produced by Irwin Toys along with a video game produced by Electronic Arts.

 

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Mysticons in production with Corus Entertainment

From a media release:

Corus Entertainment’s Nelvana is thrilled to announce that an array of industry-leading partners have joined forces on the brand-new, wholly original series, Mysticons, which will make its global debut in 2017.

Nickelodeon will serve as the global broadcast partner, including in the U.S. Nelvana Studio is actively developing the franchise and will begin production of the series later this year, working closely with the core group of partners including The Topps Company, which was acquired by Michael Eisner’s Tornante Company and Madison Dearborn Partners in 2007. Mysticons is written by veteran kids series writer Sean Jara (RedaKai, Hot Wheels: Battle Force 5, The League of Super Evil, Naturally Sadie).

The series tells the epic tale of four girls who transform into legendary warriors and undertake a mythic quest to find a magic tome known as the Codex. They must reach the Codex before Necrafa, the Queen of the Undead, gets to it first and uses it to spread darkness and destruction. The Mysticons come from different walks of life, from princess to street kid, but are brought together by fate to save the world. With their incredible magical weapons and abilities, our masked Mysticons are modern day heroines.

The series is executive produced by Michael Eisner and Noel Bright for The Topps Company and Corus Entertainment’s Doug Murphy, Colin Bohm and Irene Weibel.

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